Twitter help - how do I get followers?

[strandedatseasonsgreetings]

Sorry I know people keep asking about Twitter but I could do with some help.

I joined a while ago and one of my FB friends (an old colleague) kindly became a follower. I forgot about it for a while and then went on it today and sent a twitter message to Krishna Guru Murthy (who was one of the slightly random people I decided to follow, just to see how it all worked).

Anyway - he is now following me and must think I am very sad to only have one other follower.

How do I get more?

And should I be writing lots of exciting tweets to keep him/others following me?

Mine are a split between mumsnetters, publishers, agents and writers. They are all lovely, I don't care if they are famous or not.

NetworkGuy - thanks for the link. However, the thing about Twitter is that I don't have to look for news, it comes to me, IYSWIM!

And 140 character headlines is usually enough. Or at least it whets my appetite to go and find out more.

Humph wrote out a post and it disappeared...

Belle - are you a writer? Have you had anything published? Have you found twitter useful for this? (need to go find some authors/agents/publishers to follow...)

Ok all you people with famous followers - has anyone had anyone famous actually send them a tweet?

Some celebs do respond - I had a direct message from Phil Jupitus once! ( I have actually saved that on my laptop!)

I think it partly depends on the volume of tweets that they get - someone like Steven Fry will get so many that unless yours is the first one to pop into his timeline, or you say something stunningly witty, it's unlikely that it will even get noticed.

I had a 'chat' with Lucy Mangan recently - can't remember what on earth it was about, but it was in relation to something she tweeted.

Others will occasionally answer if you ask them a direct question.

@mrchrisaddison is someone who tries to respond/interact, and @indiaknight has tweeted to me before now.

I think many simply just ignore their followers though - and you can tell because they only ever just tweet, and there's never any evidence of tweets to anyone else, or no-one who isn't a celebrity. Twitter, for them, is just another way to self-promote.

well bloody lane price off mad men tweeted me
and the bear off the advert

wikifreak - who is the bear of the advert?

Here's another question (sorry) - if I send a direct message to someone and put @ at the beginning of their name, who can see it? All your followers? All their followers? Only you and them?

Sorry I know I just need to read that guide properly don't I! (too busy ranting on another thread)

cool - that'll push my followers numbers up to a very respectful errr 17! Still getting to grips with it though....

No one else can see a DM unless you stick it in the main feed by accident, just the person you are sending it too.

if you Direct Message someone then only they see it, no one else.

Do check that you are doing it right, particularly if you are having a moan about one of your followers otherwise it can be embarrassing.

I have sent you a request @shineon.

I'm on twitter - my username is roadstone. I don't think i've had anyone famous tweet me but I don't let that stop me tweeting stuff to them

you are shineyjulia - there is also a shineyjules but I am not following her.

I've found you bluebump

Found you too I better think of something witty to say now...

Ok so let's get this right. If I wanted to sent a tweet to say shineyjulia and I just put it in the main message area and wrote @shineyjulia did you know that mmelindt stinks? Then everyone including mmelindt (if she were following me) would see it?

But if I actually sent it as a direct message then only she would? And do people send dm's to celebs or is that a bit wierd and stalkerish?

So when Belle put on her tweet "thanks for all the replies" and I couldn't see any replies it was because everyone had been dm'ing her?

I have had some dm's so can do those. I think.

(Incidentally I need to get this right because no doubt ny 5-yr-old dd will be doing it soon so I need to keep on top of it all)

oh and bluebump I have added you too. But don't worry about wittiness I have been very dull so far.

I think that the person you DM has to be following you - so that would only work if the sleb was following you.

And I am completely confused as to who is following me. Do give me a shout and tell me what your MN name is (if you want) if you already follow me. I am mmelindor on twitter.

You need to follow the people who were replying to me in order to see them strand.

You don't have to think of something witty to say blue, I don't

victoria derbyshire has tweeted me back on a few occasions. phil williams has responded to my tweets also and has retweeted a response I sent to him. And I had a direct message from keith chegwin.

I stopped following alan sugar because his tweets were so self-indulgent it was unreal. All retweets from people saying "I've just read your book, it was so awe-inspiring/couldn't put it down for ages/what an awesome legend you are." .

app-wise I am now using twitterific for IPhone. Was using echofon but after I upgraded to iOS4.2 it kept crashing (not sure whether it was because of the app or the upgrade).

@clairerandall if you're not following me yet (I follow back).

Ok thanks it is all starting to get a little bit clearer.

Mmelindt - am now following you and promise I won't really be rude about you! (am strandedatsea on twitter as well as here)

But I can dm Krishnan guru murthy because he is following me? But I can't dm David Milliband because he is not following me?

Wannabe
Yes, Victoria Derbyshire often replies to tweets, as do a lot of the journalists.

I unfollowed Sir Alan for the same reason.